Page 55 of Knight
“Born and raised in that club. Back in Tennessee. My dad’s the president of the chapter in Gray Fort.” I gave him an honest answer because there was no way I could hide my pride for where and how I’d grown up. For the group of people that had been there for me no matter what.
“My cousin works at the hospital,” he said and I looked at him with confusion, wondering where he was going with all of this. “He says that a bunch of them come in every couple of months. Trade their leather vests for capes and crowns and spend hours talking and playing with all the sick kids.”
I couldn’t hide my shock. I knew the club often did things for charities. They were the first to step in when someone needed a hand. I had seen, and been there, for many of those occasions. But I didn’t know that this chapter didthat. I imagined it wasn’t an easy thing to do and the pride I felt for my club grew to the point of bursting.
“Seem like great guys.”
“They are,” I said with zero hesitation.
“I see the reason for the distraction,” he said, humor thick in his tone.
I let out a sharp laugh and swatted at him playfully.
“You saw nothing,” I called over my shoulder in a cheerful tone as I moved to clock out.
“Want me to make you something?”
“Nah, I can do it,” I answered.
“I’m bored. Please, let me make it for you.”
So, I did. I didn’t even need to tell him what to make me, he’d known my drink of choice for a while now.
“I thought you were going to let the Knight thing go,” Tara said the second my ass hit the chair beside her. I was so taken back I didn’t know what to say. “I mean,” she corrected, making her tone lighter. “It’s just that you seemed really unhappy. You were walking around on eggshells and didn’t even want to live in that apartment with him anymore.”
“Yeah,” I said a bit short. “We…talked.”
I mean we did sort of talk. Or rather he talked and I tried my best to distract myself from all the things that were going on in my head. Thinking about what had happened between us in his room made my cheeks heat and I ducked my head to try and hide my reaction. I didn’t want to talk about it with her. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew I wanted to keep it to myself for the time being.
“You guys, like, together then?”
Her question caught me off guard. Even if I had an answer to it I wasn’t even sure where to begin how to explain the whole thing.
“No,” I said with a little sigh that I hoped she didn’t catch. “We are working on the friends part.” Which, to be fair, was mostly the truth. You couldn’t be…lovers? In a relationship? Ugh, whatever it was, you couldn’t do it without being friends.
Thankfully she took the hint and didn’t press anymore. At the end of my study hour, she offered to drive me to the campus since she needed to go to the library.
My phone vibrated right in the middle of my class and I tried my hardest to ignore the urge to look at it. By the end, I couldn’t remember a thing the professor had said and I prayed that there wasn’t anything he had added that wasn’t in the reading.
I pulled out my phone as I walked out of the door. To my disappointment, it was a text from Knight saying that something had come up and he had to head to the clubhouse.
I knew what that meant and I tried my hardest to push the sadness down. Club business always came first, and while I knew that and didn’t expect it to be any other way, I also knew there was no way to know how long it could take.
“Hey!” Tara called the moment I walked out of the building. I looked up with surprise to see her jumping off the bench she’d been sitting on and dashing my way. “I didn’t want to leave you stranded here and all.”
“Oh, crap. Yeah, thanks. I hadn’t even thought about that.” I let out a silly giggle.
She’d given me a ride and while I was sure if I looked hard enough, I would find a prospect lurking nearby, I wasn’t going to just get on the back of some guys bike. While it was an unsaid rule, it was still widely thought that putting a ‘bitch on the back of your bike’ meant something more than giving someone a ride. It was sacred, if you will.
“Home?” she asked once we were safely tucked into her car.
I paused for a long moment contemplating what I should do. Or what I wanted to do, rather, and if maybe it was the best thing. But then I decided I didn’t give a crap and told her to head to the compound instead. Even if Knight was busy, I could at least hang out with the guys and I was curious about the place. I hadn’t been there yet and I really needed to change that. I knew I was welcome, so it wouldn’t be an issue.
My plan was to have her drop me off and go, but when she pulled up and put the car in park, I knew she had other plans. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to see the place because I really had no reason to keep it from her. I didn’t think she was a threat and I was one hundred percent sure she wouldn’t do anything to disrespect the club.
I wasn’t really sure why I was hesitant, to be honest. However, since I couldn’t come up with a legitimate reason to send her away, I nodded when she pulled her keys out of the ignition and opened her door to get out.
As the music filtered through the closed door and into the late afternoon air, I knew it wasn’t going to be a quiet night in the clubhouse. I smiled, feeling a warm since a familiarity washing over me.
